Wheelchair fastening device

ABSTRACT

Provided is a wheelchair fastening device, including a housing, a mounting base, a winder and an actuating mechanism. The winder and the actuating mechanism are pivotally mounted on the mounting base. The housing covers the mounting base. The actuating mechanism has a stop piece to limit the rotation of the winder, and has an actuating lever and a gear set. By operating the actuating lever, the stop piece is detached from the winder, and the gear set actuates the winder to perform the action of winding up or pulling out.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention

The present disclosure relates to a fastening device, and moreparticularly to a structure suitable for fastening a wheelchair in avehicle and reducing the displacement of the wheelchair in the vehicle.

2. The Prior Arts

The wheel chair fastening device is mainly used to fix the wheelchair tothe vehicle. A unidirectional ratchet is used to tightly hook theflexible belt on the wheelchair, so as to prevent the wheelchair fromsliding in the traveling vehicle by the tightening force.

For example, the wheelchair fixing device of Taiwan Patent No. M513687mainly includes a housing and a winder inside the housing. The housingis provided with an outlet. The winder has a reel and a flexible belt.The flexible belt is arranged on the outer periphery of the reel. Theflexible belt has a wheelchair hooking end which is pulled out throughthe outlet to be stretched and shortened. One end of the reel isprovided with a knob outside the housing. A unidirectional latchmechanism has a unidirectional ratchet, a blocking piece and a releasebutton. The unidirectional ratchet is connected to the reel. Theblocking piece is assembled by a spring such that the abutting edgenormally elastically bears against the unidirectional ratchet. Therelease control part is connected to the blocking piece, and protrudesfrom the housing so as to control the release control part to disengagethe abutting edge from the unidirectional ratchet.

When the user pre-rolls the flexible belt to retract the wheelchairhooking end, it is necessary to control the release control part withone hand, and rotate the knob with the other hand. Two hands mustoperate two places at the same time to perform the retracting action.Such method is quite inconvenient for the users. Since the knob iscoaxial with the unidirectional ratchet, when the wheelchair hooking endis hooked on the wheelchair and the flexible belt needs to be tightened,the knob need to be rotated to force the unidirectional ratchet torotate in the reverse direction. The unidirectional gear of theunidirectional ratchet against which the abutting edge abuts isdisplaced, so that the next unidirectional gear abuts against theabutting edge of the blocking piece, thereby causing the flexible beltto be tightened. However, in the state where the knob and the reel arecoaxial, the operator is strenuous when turning. As such, how to saveeffort and facilitate one-handed operation when operating the fasteningdevice is a problem to be improved.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In light of the foregoing problems, a main objective of the presentdisclosure is to solve the problems that the release button and theretractor knob of the fastening device are divided into two components,which must be operated with two hands, thereby causing inconvenience andlabor.

A wheelchair fastening device of the present disclosure includes ahousing, including a first enclosure and a second enclosure that areopposite to each other, wherein an accommodation space is providedinside the housing, a band outlet is provided on one side of thehousing, and a positioning portion is provided on the other side of thehousing; a mounting base, fixed in the accommodation space, wherein themounting base at least includes two side frames opposite to each other;a winder, including at least one unidirectional ratchet, a reel, and aflexible band, wherein two sides of the reel are pivoted at the two sideframes, the unidirectional ratchet is connected to the reel, a peripheryof the unidirectional ratchet is provided with a pluralityunidirectional teeth, the flexible band is rolled around an outerperiphery of the reel, the flexible band is provided with a hook, andthe hook is operatively pulled out or rolled up by the band outlet ofthe housing; and an actuating mechanism, including an actuating lever, apushing piece, an elastic element, a gear set, and a stop piece, whereinthe pushing piece and the elastic element are pivoted between the twoside frames by the actuating lever, the pushing piece is provided with atappet, the gear set has a small gear set on the actuating lever, alarge gear set on the reel and meshing with the small gear, the stoppiece is pivoted on the two side frames and is located between thewinder and the pushing piece, the stop piece is provided with anabutment portion, the stop piece is provided with a limit holesurrounding the tappet, a peripheral edge of the limit hole has a guidebevel, a stretching element is arranged between one side of the stoppiece and one of the side frames such that a hole wall of the limit holeis operatively separated against the tappet, and the abutment portionabuts on one of the unidirectional teeth in a relaxed state of theelastic element.

As such, the elastic element can be compressed by operating an axialdisplacement of the actuating lever, the pushing piece moves with theaxial displacement of the actuating lever, so that one side of thetappet is pushed against the guide bevel of the limit hole, the changeof the guide bevel pushed by the tappet causes the stop piece to bedisplaced radially with respect to the actuating lever, each abutmentportion is disengaged from the unidirectional teeth, and simultaneouslyrotating the actuating lever cause the gear set to actuate the reel toretract or pull out the hook. Consequently, the purpose of one-handedoperation is achieved. Since the present disclosure uses a small gear todrive a large gear, the operator can save effort when operating theactuating lever.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a three-dimensional schematic diagram of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 2 is an exploded three-dimensional schematic diagram of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 3 is an exploded three-dimensional schematic diagram showing awinder and an actuating mechanism of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 is a three-dimensional schematic diagram of assembly of a stoppiece and a stretching element of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5 is a partially cross-sectional schematic diagram taken along theline A-A in FIG. 1 according to the embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 6 is a partially three-dimensional cross-sectional schematicdiagram taken along the line B-B in FIG. 1 according to the embodimentof the present disclosure.

FIG. 7 shows an operation diagram of the present disclosure.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of the operation of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of the stop piece according to anembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of the operation of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of the operation of a gear set of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 12 is a cross-sectional schematic diagram of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 13 is a partially three-dimensional cross-sectional schematicdiagram showing a first enclosure and a seat belt buckle seat of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 14 is a three-dimensional schematic diagram of the seat belt buckleassembly disposed on the housing according to an embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 15 is a three-dimensional schematic diagram of assembly of thepresent disclosure with a buckle seat.

FIG. 16 is a schematic diagram of implementation of the presentdisclosure on a vehicle.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The detailed description of the present invention is provided incombination with the accompanying drawings.

Please refer to FIGS. 1-6. According to a preferred embodiment of thepresent disclosure, a wheelchair fastening device mainly includes ahousing 2, a mounting base 3, a winder 4 and an actuating mechanism 5.The winder 4 and the actuating mechanism 5 are pivotally mounted on themounting base 3, and the housing 2 covers the mounting base 3.

The housing 2 includes a first enclosure 21 and a second enclosure 22that are opposite to each other. The first enclosure 21 and the secondenclosure 22 together define an accommodation space 23. One side of thefirst enclosure 21 and one side of the second enclosure 22 arerespectively provided with a pair of positioning portion 24. Thepositioning portion 24 can be used for assembling a clip mount 6 (seeFIG. 15). A band outlet 25 is provided on the other side of the housing2. In the embodiment of the present disclosure, the band outlet 25 isprovided in the first enclosure 21, but not limited thereto. As shown inFIG. 2, the mating surfaces of the first enclosure 21 and the secondenclosure 22 are respectively provided with complementary engagementgrooves 211 and convex ribs 221 such that when the first enclosure 21and the second enclosure 22 are aligned, they have the effect ofpositioning and alignment. Moreover, the inner wall of the firstenclosure 21 is protruded with a plurality of snap portions 212, and thesecond enclosure 22 is provided with a plurality of snap holes 222. Eachof snap holes 222 corresponds to each of snap portions 212. The firstenclosure 21 is fixed by inserting the snap portions 212 into the snapholes 222, but not limited thereto. The method of fixing the firstenclosure 21 to the second enclosure 22 may also include other fixingmethods such as screwing, bonding, welding, etc. It is within the scopeof the present disclosure that any method of combining and fixing thefirst enclosure 21 and the second enclosure 22 is possible.

The mounting base 3 is fixed in the accommodation space 23, and at leastincludes two side frames opposite to each other. The mounting base 3 isfurther provided with a platform 32 connected to the bottom between thetwo side frames 31. The mounting base 3 is provided with a positioningear 33. The positioning ear 33 corresponds to the positioning portions24 of the first enclosure 21 and the second enclosure 22. A fixingelement Si fixes the positioning portions 24 and the positioning ear 33together. In the embodiment of the present disclosure, the positioningear 33 extends integrally from one side of the platform 32. Further,each of side frames 31 is provided with a first pivot hole 311, a secondpivot hole 312, a third pivot hole 313 and a fourth pivot hole 314. Inthe embodiment of the present disclosure, the first pivot hole 311 andthe third pivot hole 313 are respectively adjacent to the second pivot312, and the fourth pivot hole 314 is spaced under the second pivot hole312. As shown in FIG. 4, the fourth pivot hole 314 has projections 315disposed diagonally.

The winder 4 includes at least one unidirectional ratchet 41, a reel 42,a flexible band 43 and a roll 44. The unidirectional ratchet 41 isprovided on one side of the reel 44 in the axial direction. In theembodiment of the present disclosure, two unidirectional ratchets 41 areprovided on both sides of the reel 44. A plurality of unidirectionalteeth 411 are provided on the peripheral of the unidirectional ratchet41. The flexible band 43 is wound around the outer periphery of the reel44, and is also provided with a hook 45. The hook 45 is operably pulledout or retracted from the band outlet 25 of the housing 2. The reel 42passes through the roll 44, and both ends of the roll 44 are pivotallymounted on the first pivot holes 311 of the two side frames 31 such thatthe roll 44 can be pivoted with the reel 42. In addition, one end of thereel 42 further passes through one of the side frames 31.

The actuating mechanism 5 includes an actuating lever 51, a pushingpiece 52, an elastic element 53, a direction lever 54, a gear set 55 anda stop piece 56. The pushing piece 52 and the elastic element 53 arepivotally mounted on the second pivot holes 312 of the two side frames31 with the actuating lever 51. The actuating lever 51 penetrates one ofthe side frames 31, and a handle 511 is provided at the protruding end.The handle 511 is located outside the housing 2. In the embodiment ofthe present disclosure, two ends of the elastic element 53 arerespectively placed between the pushing piece and one of the side frames31. In the present disclosure, in a normal state, the elastic element 53is in a relaxed state, and a distance is formed between the handle 511and the housing 2.

The pushing piece 52 has at least one at least one pivot ear 521 and atleast one directional ear 522 opposite to each other. The pushing piece52 extends upwards to a tappet 523. In FIGS. 6, 8, 9 and 10, the tappet523 are specifically displayed in a grid to facilitate explanation. Thepivot ear 521 is pivotally mounted on the actuating lever 51. Thedirectional ear 522 is pivotally arranged on the third pivot holes 313of the two side frames 31 with the directional lever 54. In theembodiment of the present disclosure, two pivot ears 521 and twodirectional ears 522 are taken as examples. The gear set 55 has a smallgear 551 and a large gear 552. The small gear is provided at one end ofthe actuating lever 51 penetrating the side frame 31, and a large gear552 is provided at one end of the reel 42 penetrating the side frame 31.The large gear 552 meshes with the small gear 551. Moreover, the twoends of the reel 42, the actuating lever 51 and the direction lever 54are respectively provided with buckles C1 for fixing.

The stop piece 56 is pivotally arranged in the fourth pivot holes 314 ofthe two side frames 31, and is located between the winder 4 and thepushing piece 52. The stop piece 56 is provided with an abutment portion561. In FIGS. 6, 8, 9 and 10, the abutment portion 561 is specificallyshown with diagonal lines to facilitate explanation. Moreover, a limithole 562 is provided at the top of the stop piece 561 to surround thetappet 523. The periphery of the limit hole 562 has a guide bevel 563.In the embodiment of the present disclosure, the limit hole 562 is anelongated hole. The arrangement of the guide bevel 563 makes one end ofthe limit hole 562 form a tapered shape, but not limited thereto. Asshown in FIG. 9, the limit hole 562 may also be an elongated obliquehole, and the guide bevel 563 is a part of the elongated oblique hole.

Furthermore, both ends of the bottom side of the stop piece 56 passthrough the fourth pivot holes 314. A first perforation 564 is providedat one end of the stop piece 56. The one side frame 31 iscorrespondingly provided with a second perforation 316, and a stretchingelement 7 is provided between the first perforation 564 and the secondperforation 316. Thus, the bottom side of the stop piece 56 iselastically stretched against the projection 315 provided in the fourthpivot hole 314 such that the hole wall of the limit hole 562 at the topof the stop piece 56 elastically abuts the tappet 523. When the elasticelement 53 is in a relaxed state, the abutment portion 561 abuts one ofthe unidirectional teeth 411 of the unidirectional ratchet 41, therebyrestricting the rotation of the reel 42.

As describe above, in order to limit the positions of the actuatinglever 51 and the elastic element 53, the actuating lever 51 is providedwith a pin hole 512 in the radial direction, and a positioning pin C2 isinserted in the pin hole 512. Two ends of the positioning pin C2 areexposed outside the pin hole 512 such that two sides of the pushingpiece 52 are respectively placed between the positioning pin C2 and theelastic element 53.

As shown in FIGS. 7-11, the winder 4 and the hook 45 are pulled out.When the user presses the handle 511 to axially displace the actuatinglever 51, the elastic element 53 is compressed such that the elasticelement is in a compressed state. Thus, the pushing piece 52 is axiallydisplaced along with the actuating lever 51, so that one side of thetappet 523 is pushed against the guide bevel 563 of the limit hole 562.By the change of the guide bevel 563, the stop piece 56 is displacedrelative to the radial direction of the actuating level 51, and theneach of the abutment portions 561 is enabled to disengage theunidirectional teeth 411 of the unidirectional ratchet 41. The actuatinglevel 51 is simultaneously rotated to make the small gear 551 drive thelarge gear 552 to rotate, thereby pulling the reel 42 to pull out thehook 45. After that, the handle 511 is released to restore the elasticelement 53 to a relaxed state, and the abutment portion 561 of the stoppiece 56 abuts the unidirectional teeth 411, thereby restricting therotation of the reel 42. When the hook 45 is to be retracted, the sameoperation can be performed by pressing the handle 511 and rotating inthe reverse direction.

As shown in FIGS. 11 and 16, when the hook 45 is hooked on thewheelchair 8, the flexible band 43 is pre-tightened. By rotating theactuating level 51 with the handle 511, the abutment portion 561 islimited by the stretching element 7 at the bottom, and the top islimited by the limit hole 562 such that the unidirectional teeth 411reversely rotate and push against the abutment portion 561 toelastically disengage from the unidirectional teeth 411. The nextunidirectional teeth 411 is abutted against the abutment portion 561 tocomplete the action of adjusting the tightening of the flexible band 43.

Please refer to FIG. 12, which shows another embodiment of the presentdisclosure. The difference between this embodiment and the previousembodiment is that the user compresses the elastic element 53 by pullingthe handle 511. The configuration of the structural elements is the sameas that of the previous embodiment, and will not be described again.Only the structural differences will be described below. In anotherembodiment of the present disclosure, two sides of the pushing piece 52are respectively limited by the positioning pin C2 and the buckle C1.The guide bevel 563 of the limit hole 562 is arranged opposite to theprevious embodiment. The elastic element 53 is disposed outside one ofside frames 31 to form an interval with the handle 511. The actuatinglevel 51 extends through the side frame 51, and a buckle C1 is arrangedat the end thereof. The elastic element 53 is disposed between the sideframe 51 and the buckle C1. When the elastic element 53 is in a relaxedstate, the handle 511 is attached to the housing 2. Therefore, thehandle 511 is pulled out during operation.

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 5, in order to prevent the operator's operatingforce from being too large when pressing or pulling out, the actuatinglever 51 is surrounded by two spaced grooves. A support base 9 is fixedon the platform 32 of the mounting base 3, and the support base 9 isprovided with a notch 91 facing the actuating lever 51. The notch 91provided with a spring 92 and a positioning steel ball 93 in sequencefrom the bottom of the notch 91 to the top of the notch 91. One side ofthe positioning steel ball 93 abuts in one of the grooves 513 to operatethe compression of the elastic element 53. The positioning steel ball 93is pressed against the outer edge of the actuating lever 51, and thepositioning steel ball 93 is pushed and dropped into another groove 513for positioning by the elastic force of the spring 92. This operationfeel is used to remind the operator to apply proper force.

Continuing to refer to FIGS. 13-15, the present disclosure furtherincludes a seat belt buckle seat B pivotally disposed on the outside ofthe first enclosure 21. The seat belt buckle seat B may be used for theseat belt buckle B1 of the vehicle to be buckled into and fixed. Thewall surface of the seat belt buckle seat B facing the first enclosure21 is provided with a bump B2. The first enclosure 21 is correspondinglyprovided with a chute 213. When the seat belt buckle B1 is buckled intothe seat belt buckle seat B, the position of the seat belt can beadjusted relative to the human body or the wheel chair 8 by sliding thebump B2 within the range of the chute 213. In addition, the positioningportion 24 of the housing 2 is combined with a clip mount 6, and theclip mount 6 is combined with the fixing base 60 of the vehicle floor toachieve the effect of the fixing and tightening of the wheelchair 8.

In summary, the present disclosure allows the stop piece 56 to beseparated from the unidirectional ratchet 41 by one-handed operation,and at the same time, the hook 45 can be retracted or pulled out toachieve convenient operation. Moreover, since the winder 4 and theactuating mechanism 5 are respectively pivotally connected to themounting base 3, the detent operation of the gear set 55 can be sued toachieve the purpose of labor-saving operation.

Although the present disclosure has been described with reference to thepreferred exemplary embodiments thereof, it is apparent to those skilledin the art that a variety of modifications and changes may be madewithout departing from the scope of the present disclosure which isintended to be defined by the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A wheelchair fastening device, comprising: ahousing, including a first enclosure and a second enclosure that areopposite to each other, wherein an accommodation space is providedinside the housing, a band outlet is provided on one side of thehousing, and a positioning portion is provided on the other side of thehousing; a mounting base, fixed in the accommodation space, wherein themounting base at least includes two side frames opposite to each other;a winder, including at least one unidirectional ratchet, a reel, and aflexible band, wherein two sides of the reel are pivoted at the two sideframes, the unidirectional ratchet is connected to the reel, a peripheryof the unidirectional ratchet is provided with a pluralityunidirectional teeth, the flexible band is rolled around an outerperiphery of the reel, the flexible band is provided with a hook, andthe hook is operatively pulled out or rolled up by the band outlet ofthe housing; and an actuating mechanism, including an actuating lever, apushing piece, an elastic element, a gear set, and a stop piece, whereinthe pushing piece and the elastic element are pivoted between the twoside frames by the actuating lever, the pushing piece is provided with atappet, the gear set has a small gear set on the actuating lever, alarge gear set on the reel and meshing with the small gear, the stoppiece is pivoted on the two side frames and is located between thewinder and the pushing piece, the stop piece is provided with anabutment portion, the stop piece is provided with a limit holesurrounding the tappet, a peripheral edge of the limit hole has a guidebevel, a stretching element is arranged between one side of the stoppiece and one of the side frames such that a hole wall of the limit holeis operatively separated against the tappet, and the abutment portionabuts on one of the unidirectional teeth in a relaxed state of theelastic element, wherein the elastic element is compressed by operatingan axial displacement of the actuating lever, the pushing piece moveswith the axial displacement of the actuating lever, so that one side ofthe tappet is pushed against the guide bevel of the limit hole, thechange of the guide bevel pushed by the tappet causes the stop piece tobe displaced radially with respect to the actuating lever, each abutmentportion is disengaged from the unidirectional teeth, and simultaneouslyrotating the actuating lever cause the gear set to actuate the reel toretract or pull out the hook.
 2. The wheelchair fastening device ofclaim 1, wherein the mounting base is provided with a positioning earcorresponding to the positioning portion of the housing, and thepositioning ear is fixed to the positioning portion with a fixingelement
 3. The wheelchair fastening device of claim 1, wherein a handleis provided at one end of the actuating lever, and the handle is locatedoutside the housing.
 4. The wheelchair fastening device of claim 1,wherein the actuating mechanism further includes a direction lever, thepushing piece is provided with a directional ear, and the directionalear is pivoted between the two side frames by the direction lever. 5.The wheelchair fastening device of claim 1, wherein the actuating leveris provided with two grooves which are spaced apart, a platform isprovided between the two side frames of the mounting base, a supportbase is fixed on the platform, the support base is provided with a notchfacing the actuating lever, the notch is provided with a spring and apositioning steel ball in order from the bottom of the notch to the slotof the notch, one side of the positioning steel ball abuts in one of thegrooves such that the elastic element is compressed, the positioningsteel ball is pressed against an outer edge of the actuating lever, andthe positioning steel ball is positioned in another groove by a springforce.
 6. The wheelchair fastening device of claim 1, wherein an innerwall of the first enclosure is provided with a plurality of snapportions spaced apart from each other, the second enclosure is providedwith a plurality of snap holes, each of the snap holes corresponds toeach of the snap portions, and each of the snap portions of the firstenclosure is embedded and fixed in each of the snap holes of the secondenclosure.
 7. The wheelchair fastening device of claim 1, wherein theactuating lever compresses the elastic element in an axial compressionor pull out manner.
 8. The wheelchair fastening device of claim 1,wherein the actuating lever is provided with a pin hole in a radialdirection, a positioning pin is penetrated in the pin hole, two ends ofthe positioning pin are exposed from the pin hole, two sides of thepushing piece are abutted between the positioning pin and the elasticmember, and another end of the elastic member is abutted against one ofthe side frames.
 9. The wheelchair fastening device of claim 1, whereinthe stop piece is provided with a first perforation, one of the sideframe is provided with a second perforation, and two ends of thestretching element are respectively arranged in the first perforationand the second perforation.
 10. The wheelchair fastening device of claim1, wherein the winder further includes a roll disposed on the outerperiphery of the reel for winding the flexible band.
 11. The wheelchairfastening device of claim 1, further comprising: a seat belt buckleseat, pivotally arranged outside the first enclosure, wherein the seatbelt buckle seat is provided with a bump facing the first enclosure, thefirst enclosure is provided with a chute correspondingly, and the bumpslides in the range of the chute.